1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical connectors and more specifically to disconnectable electrical connectors comprising a blade contact matable with a receptacle contact incorporating a spring member in which each of the contact terminals is mounted in an insulative housing containing one or more of the matable terminals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Pin and socket electrical terminals of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,220 are commonly employed to connect wires in separate electrical harnesses. These pin and socket electrical connectors are commonly employed in industries such as the appliance and automotive industries. Since pin and socket terminals are symmetrical in nature, they can be easily employed in applications where the terminals are first attached to appropriate wires in a harness and then inserted into an insulative housing having a plurality of cavities, because the operator need not orient the symmetrical terminals prior to insertion into the appropriate cavity. One drawback of conventional pin and socket terminals, however is that their symmetrical nature makes it impossible to precisely define a contact interface between the cylindrical pin and the cylindrical socket. Even if a contact point could be initially specified, that contact point would change during the life of the contact due to vibration, thermal cycling and perhaps other factors.
Unlike conventional pin and socket connectors, disconnectable connectors employing blade and receptacle terminals such as FASTON terminals do permit establishment of a stable contact interface. FASTON is a trademark of AMP Incorporated. These disconnectable connectors employ a blade terminal which mates with a receptacle terminal having a relatively stiff spring in the form of curved sections extending laterally from the sides of the base of the receptacle terminal with the edges of the curved spring sections engaging the blade. Examples of disconnectable connectors of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,550,856; U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,346; U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,768; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,698. These patents show that individual receptacle terminals and individual tabs are commonly mounted in single position insulative sleeves. Note, however, that the terminals shown in this patents are assymetrically positioned within the sleeves relative to the centerlines of the housings and the axis of the wires to which the terminals are attached. U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,468 discloses a receptacle terminal which is positioned generally on the centerline of the housing. Note, however, that none of these patents shows a tab and receptacle terminal, each mounted within a housing, in which both the terminals and the housings are matable. Furthermore, these patents show terminals of this type employed in single position instead of multi-position housings. Therefore connectors of this type do not offer some of the same advantages as pin and socket terminals do, especially when used to fabricate a plurality of wire to wire interconnections in a harness.
One conventional use of disconnectable receptacle terminals, of the type just described, in a multiple position housing is for use in a connector which can be mated with a plurality of flat terminals in a printed circuit board header. An example of one such connector is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,183. Another multiple position connector having this type of receptacle contact is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,612. U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,718 discloses a multiple position electrical connector in which a plurality of blade terminals attached to wires are positioned in an insulative housing. None of these patents, however, disclose wire to wire multiple position electrical connectors having matable blade and receptacle terminals mounted in matable insulative housings. Furthermore, none of these patents shows matable connector subassemblies in which multiple blade and receptacle contacts are symmetrically positioned within the housing with the mating ends of the terminals located on the centerline of the cavities in which the terminals are positioned. In other words, none of these patents discloses a connector in which orientation of the blade and receptacle terminals relative to the housings and to each other is unnecessary.